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Honestly insight is better than Prius C (Consumer Reports reviews)

Discussion in 'Honda/Acura Hybrids and EVs' started by Troy Heagy, May 29, 2014.

  1. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    In the following reviews Consumer Reports tears-up both cars as "loud, plastic, cheap". Well of course; they are econocars. I own a Prius G3, but in my testdrives/rentals of the sub-20K cars I found they:

    - both have the same price (about 18,000 quoted by local dealers)
    - BUT insight is a little cheaper with Honda's finance deal (16,500)
    - the insight has a nicer dash
    - colorful tachometers, holographic speedometer (copied from the Clarity fuel cell car)
    - better base radio:modern vs. the C's 90s retro (see the videos for comparison)
    - more nimble & steering control
    - nicer overall interior
    - better ride
    Plus more cargo room for luggage, and also a sexier shape from the rear and side views (insight was copied from the classic Honda CRX shape).

    CR prius C review:

    CR insight review:
     
  2. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    Yet the market numbers, Prius c vs Insight, confirms CR has lost it.

    Bob Wilson
     
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  3. usnavystgc

    usnavystgc Die Hard DIYer and Ebike enthusiast.

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    Uhhhhh clown!
     
  4. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    Careful. Take a look at the top 10 songs right now, and then argue "popularity matters more" than individual taste. (Unless you think Katy Perry, Rihanna, Jay-Z represent not just the most popular singers, but the height of music talent.) Popularity doesn't mean much.
     
  5. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    Was this directed at me? :(
     
  6. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    The Insight feels nothing like the Prius. When I test drove one, it was awful. We have both a Gen II and a new Prius C and both are great cars. Honda has lost their direction, hopefully they will find it and become competitive again in the next few years.
     
  7. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    I was comparing to the base C (because they are the same cost: ~$18,000). The C is okay but its base radio looks like it came out of my old 90s Mitsubishi... outdated.
     
  8. hkmb

    hkmb Senior Member

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    It looks like you get very different trim in America. That radio does look nasty, as does the whole dashboard. From the Prius Cs I've looked at here, they have a much better-quality dash and a radio that was made some time after 1989.

    They've discontinued the Insight here because it was selling so badly. It's a much bigger car than the Prius C, and it was a similar price. But I always thought it looked kind of clumsy.
     
  9. Peter Danlyn

    Peter Danlyn Junior Member

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    Just one comparitive look at the fuelly numbers is all you need to tell you which car is better at what it is designed to do.

    DROID X2 ? 2
     
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  10. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    As many people have reminded me multiple times: Why do you assume a hybrid's primary purpose is to "save money"? People buy hybrids for other reasons (appearance, interior, fun to drive, et cetera). It's true the Prius gets 2-3 more MPG than the Insight but:

    - The insight has a better outside appearance (copied off the classic CRX), a modern dash (not an old 90s radio like the base C has), engaging & colorful odometers, a sporty drive, and a holographic speed display. And lower selling cost.

    As I said in my first post. BTW one reason I doubt the accuracy of fuelly (or perhaps: its members) is because it lists a 2009 Insight. No such car exists. How accurate can a website be if it can't get such a basic fact correct? Probably tons of other errors too. I prefer the controlled & repeatable tests of the EPA for comparing across different models (though I do think their city test is fundamentally flawed). When edmunds.com took ~20 cars and SUVs for a "city" test in Las Vegas, none of them came anywhere near their EPA city rating.
     
  11. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    You don't even have to look at Fuelly.

    The Insight is going alt+F4 after 2014.

    I like the Insight.
    It looks like somebody tried to make it look halfway decent, and the (some say"only")one advantage of the IMA system is that the whole car doesn't go TANGO-UNIFORM if the battery dies.
    (or so I'm told.)

    Unfortunately......
    It actually makes a Prius seem almost sporty.
    It turns like a pig on a skateboard, it's even slower wheezing up to highway speed than a Prius, the viability is almost as bad, it has the same bifurcated rear view with the same useless wiper, and it's just about as noisy as a Prius---but not nearly as big inside.

    I personally think that it's a good car for 18K, but the market decided otherwise.

    RIP, Insight.
    We barely knew you.
    :)
     
    #11 ETC(SS), Jun 3, 2014
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2014
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  12. Peter Danlyn

    Peter Danlyn Junior Member

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    The first quoted paragraph lists attributes that people consider when buying any car, not just a hybrid. I tend to think that those who choose a hybrid absolutely place a higher value on efficiency and mpg than they do on geegaws like holographic speedos and whiz-bang looks in their equally functional radios.

    Your second paragraph is completely subjective. It's blond vs brunette, chocolate vs vanilla, coke vs pepsi, or Eminem vs the Eagles. It's nice that the Insight offers a complete package that floats your boat. Everything about the C works for me.

    Not least is the observed fact that I and many reviewers consistently achieve mpg numbers better than rated. I dont think the same can be said for the insight.
     
  13. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    Actually if you wanted to save money, rather than buy either of these compact hybrids (insight or the C), a better choice would be a $11,000 Versa (dealer price) or $12,000 Mirage or $13,000 Fiesta or $15,000 Focus. These 38-45 mpg cars provide pricetag savings that are greater than any fuel savings on the backend. (You'd have to drive the C almost 300,000 miles for the fuel savings to exceed the lowest cost of the nonhybrid cars.)

    As for dash, when I first rented the C my impression was "oh my, this is cheap looking". But then I thought, "Well it is a $19000 car... Toyota had to cut costs. (shrug)" BUT then I returned to my initial assessment when I saw the interior of the insight, and how even though it was lowest cost hybrid, it looked richer.

    The C:
    [​IMG]

    The Insight:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    #13 Troy Heagy, Jun 3, 2014
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2014
  14. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    ... in the North American market. In certain markets, the model year refers to the calendar year in which it was built or registered, not the U.S.-style Model Year.

    Take a closer look at those 2009 Insights registered on Fuelly. Neither is in the U.S. market. One is in the UK, and several PC members from the UK can confirm their differing model year system. The other is in France.
    Pot, meet kettle.
     
  15. Troy Heagy

    Troy Heagy Member

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    Thanks for the correction. No thanks for the smartassed "pot" comment. It's one thing to criticize an inanimate object that has no feelings (the website, a car, a megacorp) and something else to criticize & insult a human being.

    I still think EPA numbers (and EU NEDC numbers and Japan's JC08 numbers) are still superior. They are all controlled tests that are identical across all cars. In contrast we have no idea what routes the drivers on fuelly are driving, or if maybe they are driving different styles. For example: I suspect we hybrid drivers more slowly & less braking than someone who bought a Jetta TDI sport.)
     
  16. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    The website operators, and its members, are human beings too.
     
  17. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    The two pictures you show above for the radio is silly. They are both the same. The Honda's is actually CHEAPER looking to anyone that knows about cars. The two single DIN slots are clearly demarcated. Looks horrible.

    And our C looks nothing like that:

    [​IMG]
     
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  18. Horsefeathers

    Horsefeathers Member

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    <irrelevant stream of consciousness>

    Oh! I love Gavin DeGraw, and I like that song. How is it I did not have it already? Downloading it now. Thanks for the visual prompt!

    </irrelevant stream of consciousness>
     
  19. SwhitePC

    SwhitePC Active Member

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    It's okay troy, even if your opinions are totally wrong (except maybe for the interior room fact), just take that great car of yours of a insight.

    I don't get it, looking at the insight history on fuelly...why and how did honda go from a 55+ mpg car to a 40mpg car??? lol...I guess that's why the insight and cr-z are discontinued and history
     
  20. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Weight and drag. The original, or as I think of it, real Insight was a two seater with a slippery full aluminum body. That was expensive. So Honda abandoned the full aluminum with the Insight2, and further increased weight by putting in a rear seat. Then they cut corners on aerodynamics. Despite looking sleeker in profile, I think the Insight2 has a higher cd than the Prius C.

    In addition to those corners, there were others cut in order to meet Honda's price point. The ICE didn't receive all the latest goodies that were going into the Civic hybrid. So it had lower efficiency and power. The power might not seem important, but it meant shorter gear ratios to get acceptable acceleration. Which means more gas burned.

    The real Insight had a cult following. With the Insight2, Honda was trying to cash in on this. It could have worked, but the car was overpriced. Hype expected it to be a couple thousand less than it was. Even a thousand lower would had widen the price gap with the Prius. If the base Prius was $3k more instead of $2k, then more may have opted for the Insight2, depending on the Honda dealers. As it was, Honda would have been better just giving us the Fit hybrid, which the Insight2 was based off of. The non-hybrid still does well considering this generation's age, and the asking price for the hybrid would appear fair in comparison.

    The CR-Z was too unfocused, and didn't do any one thing well. It was trying to do all the things the CR-X did over multiple trims. The Insight was seen as the replacement for the CR-X HF. A late 1980s fuel economy monster. If the Insight2 had embraced that and remained a two seater, it could of gotten high mpg numbers while being affordable. Then the CR-Z could have focused on being the spiritual replacement of the CR-X Si. Two seaters have a more limited market, but they probably would have generated more interest than what Honda put out.

    PS: The big mpg numbers of the real Insight were done on the ones with a manual transmission.